Best wishes to new Geoinformatics MSc students at KazNU

In September 2012, at the Kazakh National University the first group of students in the international Geoinformatics MSc have started their program. 6 students have received state scholarships and were admitted to this innovative program under a novel curriculum, developed within a Tempus project involving partner universities from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. http://tempusgem.zgis.net and http://msc-gem.zgis.net provide further information about these programs.

On Thursday, 25 ^th of October an online meeting with Professors Josef Strobl (University of Salzburg, Tempus project coordinator) and Michael Gould (University Jaume I in Castellon, ESRI Global Education Manager) was conducted, to welcome KazNU’s masters students at the start of the academic year. Online learning resources and interaction with international teachers will continue to assist students with developing skills and competences in the field of Geoinformatics, which offers attractive employment opportunities across a variety of industries and disciplines.

Prof. Strobl gives lectures to Geoinformatics MSc students

Prof. Josef Strobl from the Department of Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg has visited ACA*GIScience and given lectures to the new group of GEM students in Bishkek on October 20, 2012. Many interesting examples of GIS Applications and Spatial Analysis were discussed, with a special focus on an overview of Map Algebra as an organizing principle of analytical operators.

 

GIS Training at the Kyrgyz Ministry of Emergency is started

Team of  KSUCTA teachers has started a GIS Training Course for Disaster Management specialists of  the Kyrgyz Ministry for Emergency Situations.  This course is on using ArcGIS 10 and Open Source GIS Software as well as GPS applications for the disaster risk assessment and management. 33 professionals are taking this GIS training in 7 cities - Oblast (province) centres. The special online communcation facilities of the MES KR and advanced information technologies  have been used for providing this professional qualification improvement course.

Planet Action Project is started at KSUCTA

ACA*GIScience KSUCTA Team has started a new project "Assessing Human Vulnerability to Climate Change" supported by the Planet Action - an Astrium GEO Initiative. Planet Action was launched in 2007 by Spot Image, leading supplier of satellite imagery and geo-information, joined by ESRI, leading GIS technologies provider as co-founder.

The main objective of the project is the assessment of human vulnerabilities in the selected 5 cities of Kyrgyzstan to climate change hazards such as flooding. High resolution satellite data for project will be supplied by the Spot Image. Satellite image processing and GIS software (e-Cognition and ArcGIS) will be provided by Trimble and ESRI.

Opening of the new GIS Lab at OshTU

The new GIS Computer Laboratory has been opened at Osh Technological University. This lab is aiming at  resolving the urgent needs in  academic and research activities in Geoinformation Science and Technology in South Kyrgyzstan. The advanced hardware and GIS software were granted within the EC TEMPUS Project "Geoinformatics – Managing Energy, Resources, Environment (GEM)". The official opening ceremony of this lab was held on October 3, 2012 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and attended by participants from the academic and industrial partners of TEMPUS GEM. The warm welcome by Prof.Dr. Josef Strobl, Project Coordinator from the University of Salzburg, was delivered to participants of this event through an online conference. The university leadership has highlighted the invaluable contribution of TEMPUS GEM Project for integration of OshTU into the international education system by developing the new MSc Program in Geoinformatics.